Today's post is written by Alan Walker, a processing archivist at Archives II in College Park. Lt. General John L. DeWitt was in charge of the U.S. Army’s Western Defense Command in 1942 and was instrumental in the development of Executive Order 9066, which directed the internment of all Japanese Americans living on the West … Continue reading A Slap’s a Slap: General John L. DeWitt and Four Little Words
Today's post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. During the past several weeks there has been great international interest in the art works that had been in the possession of Hildebrand Gurlitt before and during World War II, some of which were ultimately recovered at war’s end, stored at the United States Army’s Wiesbaden Central … Continue reading The Origins and Operations of the Wiesbaden Central Collecting Point
Today's post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. In reviewing some text that we plan on adding to the International Research Portal for Records Related to Nazi-Era Cultural Property in conjunction with albums containing photographs depicting looted art work, Robin Waldman had a comment after she looked at the following: [Colonel Robert Storey, an American prosecutor at … Continue reading “The Numbers Don’t Add Up” — Lessons to be Learned by Archivists and Researchers
Today's post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. Elizabeth Hamer, the chief of the National Archives Exhibits and Publications staff, maintained a very detailed daily diary of everything she and her staff did between 1946 and 1951. While conducting research for an article on the 1946 accessioning and exhibiting of Adolf Hitler’s Last Will and … Continue reading 13 Rue Madeleine and the National Archives
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. On the morning of August 7, 1942, the Marines landed on Guadalcanal, relatively near an airfield that the Japanese had begun constructing, and the relatively small number of Japanese on the island melted into the jungle. The following day the Marines began collecting Japanese souvenirs near the airfield. … Continue reading The Marines and Japanese Souvenirs on Guadalcanal August-October 1942
By David Langbart In the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 71 years ago today, agencies of the U.S. government swung into action. The Army and Navy immediately went on a war footing as did American diplomats in the Department of State and at embassies and consulates around the world. Since the formal … Continue reading Remembering Pearl Harbor
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. On the night of May 30, 1942, the Royal Air Force’s Bomber Command mounted its first "thousand plane" raid against Cologne and two nights later struck Essen with almost equal force. At this point the United States Army Air Force’s 8th Air Force was just beginning to arrive … Continue reading Seventy Years Ago: The United States Army Air Force’s 8th Air Force begins Bombing Operations in the European Theater of Operations, August-December 1942
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. Three years ago, on October 9, 2009, a former member of General Patton’s Third Army, in Room 105 of the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. returned to the German Ambassador two 16th Century books he had taken from a German mine during April 1945. The story how … Continue reading The Travels of two 16th Century Books from Germany to California, to Washington, D.C., and Back to Germany, 1945-2009
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. I would wager that few NARA staff members, especially those hired during the past five years, and most researchers are familiar with the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG) nor its website: www.archives.gov/iwg. The website contains a wealth of valuable information not … Continue reading A Brief History of the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG)
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. Some seventy years ago, this past August, the first major collection of captured Japanese documents in the Pacific Theater to arrive at Pearl Harbor were those captured in August 1942 when the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, under Lt. Col. Evans F. Carlson, made a harassing raid on Makin … Continue reading Seventy Years Ago: The Makin Island Raid, August 1942
